Construction of Apollo Tyres’ first European greenfield plant in Gyöngyöshalász, Hungary, is now underway with tire production scheduled to start in early 2017. The facility will produce both Apollo and Vredestein branded tires and will cater for the entire European market. The Gyöngyöshalász facility will have the capacity to produce 5.5 million passenger car and light truck tires and 675,000 heavy commercial vehicle tires per annum.
Onkar S Kanwar, chairman, Apollo Tyres, said, “This is a significant milestone for us at Apollo Tyres, considering that a few years back we didn’t have any presence in Europe, and today, we are looking at having our second manufacturing unit in place. With the new capacity in Hungary, we will be able to further increase our focus on the European market.”
Recruitment for the new factory is underway and the company has already signed scholarship programs with close to 90 technicians who will be contracted as employees from July. In the second half of the year, 150 more technicians will be employed.
Meanwhile, the company has inaugurated its third Apollo Retread Zone (ARZ) in Mumbai, India. With the objective of providing a quality retreading service to truck-bus customers and fleet owners, these branded outlets are equipped with advanced retreading machines, high quality tread material and trained workers.
April 15, 2015